Evil by Design takes a tongue and cheek look at how web and application design can be used to exploit psychological principles to persuade us to act. The book is arranged in chapters following the seven deadly sins, with the relevant design patterns aligned under the headings of Sloth, Pride, Envy, Greed, Lust, Anger and Gluttony.

Learn how companies make us feel good about doing what they want. Approaching persuasive design from the dark side, this book melds psychology, marketing, and design concepts to show why we're susceptible to certain persuasive techniques. Packed with examples from every nook and cranny of the web, it provides easily digestible and applicable patterns for putting these design techniques to work. Organized by the seven deadly sins, it includes:

Pride -- use social proof to position your product in line with your visitors' values

Sloth -- build a path of least resistance that leads users where you want them to go

Gluttony -- escalate customers' commitment and use loss aversion to keep them there

Chris Nodder is a user researcher and interaction design specialist who got so frustrated by seeing poor examples of persuasive design on web sites that he wrote a book on how to be good at being evil. Evil By Design is for user experience practitioners, developers, and the general public alike. It shows you how companies use persuasive techniques, and how to avoid being persuaded by them. Chris also hosts the evilbydesign.info site, where he invites you to add your own examples of evil interfaces.